


Slumbering Hearts and First Impressions

by unknowableroom_archivist



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-01-30
Updated: 2007-01-30
Packaged: 2019-01-19 21:56:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12419007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unknowableroom_archivist/pseuds/unknowableroom_archivist
Summary: Lily reflects on the first time she sets eyes on James, and following encounters. She discovers that he could be the one thing that keeps her from floating away.   Please review and tell me what you think.





	Slumbering Hearts and First Impressions

**Author's Note:**

> Note from ChristyCorr, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [Unknowable Room](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Unknowable_Room), a Harry Potter archive active from 2005-2016. To preserve the archive, I began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project after May 2017. I e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on [Unknowable Room collection profile](http://www.archiveofourown.org/collections/unknowableroom).

Hello! This is my first attempt at fanfiction, and I would dearly appreciate any constructive criticism you could give me. Heck, tell me that I suck and that I should go stick my face in a Skwert’s mouth. That would make me rather sad, but I would still appreciate it!  I want to know if I should give up fanfiction for other important pursuits like watching tv or curing world hunger.

Disclaimer: I don’t own Harry Potter. If I did, I would be too busy and important using m money to travel the world and cozying up to celebrities to bother writing fanfiction.

First Glances And Other Remembrances

       I remember the first time I saw him. 

      It wasn't in the Great Hall, when I awkwardly made my way to the three-legged stool and, I couldn't help but noticing, dirty and timeworn wizard's hat in the middle of the cavernous room. It wasn't when I, with a sense of relief and pride I couldn't explain just then, hopped off the stool and stumbled over to the long Gryffindor table amidst raucous cheering and slaps on the back that almost sent me careening to the floor. 

     It was before I saw the twinkling lights of Hogwarts from the tiny boats, when I still believed it was all a sick joke, and that any moment someone would drag me back to normalcy, back to where I belonged. It was even before I boarded the Hogwarts Express, when I was so nervous and afraid and self-conscious in my new shiny shoes and robes and somewhat tamed red hair (which had taken hours and a very sturdy brush) that I saw him.

       I remember walking through the barrier, and everything from the time I received the slightly crumpled letter by owl to that precise moment finally catching up to me, creating a deafening rush in my ears that made me dizzy. Even the astonishment and excitement that bubbled in me as my eyes skimmed the letter that essentially told me that I was special, that I might belong somewhere, couldn’t amount to the feelings coursing through me as I stepped hesitantly through a wall that had seemed very solid only moments before. 

            The noise of those filtering in behind me, jostling and hurried with their trunks and owls and hissing cats and worried mothers and exasperated fathers and the train - oh! the train - finally made it's way back into my consciousness. 

      I would be afraid to see my eyes as they were at that moment, all green and impossibly wide and trying to take everything in at once with sweeping glances. I imagine the fact that my face was drained of color except for twin spots of red on my cheeks and dozens of light brown freckles standing out might have made me look even more peculiar. 

   I remember my eyes stopping on him, and I still can't explain why. I suppose I was trying to find something substantial, something to keep me stationed on earth and from floating up into the sky, which is what I felt like doing.  He stood with three other boys in a friendly circle, laughing with his head thrown back, all shining teeth and so at ease and sure of himself that it made me fell even more out of place. Why was I here? Was I stupid, naïve? Did I really think I deserved to be here, in this world so different and special from the one I knew? 

   I was jealous of this boy, this boy who I had never talked to or seen before in my life, jealous that he belonged already to something I desperately wanted, no _needed_ , to be part. I was jealous because he looked like he could me anyone's friend, and I wanted him to be mine more than anything. I wanted him to laugh with _me_.

    And I remember the moment he lifted his head up and turned his gaze directly at me like he could feel my envious stare burning a spot on his face, and I saw clearly his messy black hair and blue-green-brown - what color were they? - eyes and I felt for the first time a vague sense of belonging. 

    He winked, and I blushed, and I quickly boarded the train and found a seat in a compartment with another girl who looked almost as lost as I did. I saw him laugh with his friends some more, probably at my expense, and suddenly felt a rush of embarrasment and anger.

    That was the first time I saw James Potter, and it was just the beginning. I later found out that he and his three friends, two tall and lanky, one with black and one with sandy blonde hair, and one short and rather round,  had not been recounting summer memories or expectations for the year or worries (like they would have any, anyways). 

     While I looked on, envious of his confidence, they had been putting the finishing touches on their start of term prank of one unlucky shiny-faced first year.

     Unfortunately, I didn't discover this until I was two inches deep in slugs and green slime and half in love with the git. 

\- 


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